A long, long time ago, when it was new and fresh (and when I watched television) I watched it occasionally. One of the regulars back then was a woman named Gilda Radner (now deceased). She played a couple of recurring characters, and she became known for two standard punch lines. One of them was, "If it's not one thing ... it's another."
That seems to be the story of my life these days. This morning I went into town to mail a book to my old girlfriend in Montana and to check the post box. When I returned home, I came up the road to find the fuel oil delivery truck stopped in the road in front of my driveway. This last storm deposited about 8 inches of fluffy white global warming. That 8 inches has now shrunk to maybe 3 or 4, and I have been in and out of the driveway a dozen or more times, so the ruts are clear and quite passable.
Nonetheless, the intrepid driver was apparently afraid to risk it, because as I drove up ... he drove away. So I went inside and checked the level gauge on the fuel oil tank. Great! Bouncing on empty. I tried calling the company, but the office was closed (it is Saturday, after all) and the answering service said they have no way of contacting the route drivers, so I would have to wait until Monday. But if I run out of fuel before they can get a truck here, that's going to be a nuisance for me, and a nuisance for their emergency crew.
So ... I called Paul, my friend who supplied the generator I used during the big power outage. He has a 5-gallon (20-liter) diesel fuel can and he let me borrow that. His can was full, so I stopped at home and dumped that into my tank. Then I went to a farm store and bought another 5-gallon diesel can. I took both to a gas station and filled them up with diesel fuel, then dumped that into the tank. 15 gallons should see me through the weekend. The previous delivery, which covered the very coldest part of late January and early February, I used roughly 8 gallons per day. With temperatures beginning to moderate now, consumption might be 5 gallons per day so, between whatever was in the tank plus the 15 gallons I just added, that should see me through. (Although I may head out tomorrow and get another 10 gallons just to be on the safe side.)
Who knew fuel oil drivers were such wimps these days? I can remember winters with a lot more snow and there was never a problem getting the fuel oil delivered.